Lisa MacGregor’s final year film Valuable was selected for Underwire festival in the Best Cinematographer Category "Looking Glass". Valuable was shot by Boxed In, a group of friends from Sunderland University who have been working together for two years.

Connor is obsessive about restoring the centerpiece for his model collection, alone into his tidy et empty appartement. He sometimes takes care of his niece Sophie, which is far from being as careful as him. Valuable is a sensitive and surprisingly mature final year film. It deals with loneliness and tenderness, in a delicate way.

The two main characters are a young girl and her uncle - they are both very convincing. What was the casting process like ? They totally match with each other.

I wasn’t that involved in the casting process but we went to a couple of local acting groups to find Sophie and this little girl in particular stood out from the rest. She was a little bit shy when you first met her and she just seemed to fit the character well. Her parents also did a bit of acting and were very lovely people who wanted to help out in any way they could.
Finding Connor was a bit more difficult, we posted on a casting website and we wanted someone who looked a bit awkward, luckily when we auditioned him he suited the character and when he met Sophie they worked well together.

There are few dialogues on Valuable, Sophie’s and Connor’s inner feelings are conveyed through close ups on the characters’ faces. What was the motivation behind telling the story that way?

Connor is a man of very few words and is very awkward around Sophie so we showed his emotions through his face instead of dialogue.

In the transition between play and screenplay, what were the most difficult goals to reach for you, as a cinematographer ?

The most difficult goal for me was visualising the house Connor lives in and how to show he is lonely.

What is the biggest thing you learned while making Valuable ?

Because this was my final year film in university I learnt a lot while making it but the biggest thing was probably learning how to colour the film to give it the feel that I wanted. I feel lucky to have one of my student films nominated for a festival it was a very nice surprise.